1312 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes, [Dec. 



stomach a short sac ; air-vessel small, oval, placed towards the upper 

 part of the abdomen. 



Mur^na thyrsoidea, Richardson. 



Plate V. Fig. 5. (Nat. size.) 

 Mureena thyrsoidea, Richardson: Ichth. Sulph, 111, PL 49. 

 Muraena thyrsoidea, Richardson : Report, 1845, 314. 

 Mursena grisea, Bleeker : Verh. Bat. Gen. XXII. 11.? 

 Head, body and fins of darker or lighter pitch colour, so closely and 

 finely marbled and dotted with white or yellowish white, as not to 

 affect the general dark colour ; abdomen lighter than the rest of the 

 body. Iris pale golden, minutely dotted with black. 



1} 



569 to 611, Br. IX. 



Habit. — Sea ofPinang. 



Canton, China Seas. 



Total length : 2 feet 2 inch. 



The form of the body is compressed, of nearly uniform depth. The 

 length of the head to the gill-opening is contained from 7i to 7f times in 

 the total, or about 3^ times in the distance from the muzzle to the anus. 

 The horizontal diameter of the eye is y 1 ^ to TT of the length of the head ; 

 the distance across the forehead is 1^ diameter ; the distance from the 

 muzzle to the eye is two such ; that from the muzzle to the angle of the 

 mouth is about % of the length of the head. The anterior apertures of 

 the nostrils open through two small tubes, situated on each side of the 

 muzzle, at a distance from one another of one diameter of the eye. The 

 posterior apertures are small, oval, with a narrow membranous edge ; 

 each is placed above the forepart of the orbit. On the upper lip appear 

 on each side four distant pores, and on each side of the lower lip four 

 similar ones. Sir J. Richardson has traced scales before the gill- 

 opening. Both jaws are of nearly equal length and armed with 

 two series of teeth. Those of the outer series are minute, yet 

 strong, pointed with trenchant edges, and the series of both sides are 

 uninterrupted on the symphysis of the upper jaw. Those of the inner 

 series are more distant, thicker and longer. On the mesial line 

 of the upper jaw appear four or five longer, distant, subulate teeth, 

 which gradually increase in length, and are moveable. The rest 



